UPDATED 6/11: Steam Next Fest June 2025: Try These Demos Before They’re Gone!
It's Demo Season, Dood
Livber: Smoke and Mirrors
A short psychological horror interactive story. Five years after vanishing without a trace, the woman you once called your lover writes from beyond the silence: “I will give birth to your child.” In three acts, descend into a fractured mindscape where obsession, memory, and myth intertwine.
Within those walls, long-buried memories resurface: betrayal, passion, and wounds that never healed. Lilith has been waiting, not just for reunion, but to complete a dark plan set in motion years ago. And with every question you ask, you’re pulled further into a reality that no longer feels like your own.
Choices don’t just matter here—they shape the very pathing of the story as you progress. It’s worth checking out this psychological horror story for yourself!
April Grove
Undertake your new job as a forester in a mystic and peaceful wood. Chop, gather, level up and unravel the expansive forest and its splendor at your own pace, one log at a time!
Take a load off, enjoy the scenery, chop a tree or two; the world of April Grove is yours to explore and savor.
Gameboy Advance aesthetics permeate April Grove. Combined with a slow-life pacing, I think we’ve got ourselves a winner here.
PIONER
PIONER is an open-world MMO first-person shooter set in a haunting, alternative-reality world where Soviet-era structures lie abandoned on a desolate, post-apocalyptic island. In this immersive environment, the gameplay experience is defined by dynamic PvE and PvP elements, where realism takes priority over traditional health bars or character levels. With a sprawling map of 50+ square kilometers, not counting hidden dungeons, players can explore a world rich with mystery and danger, encountering story quests and faction missions that influence relationships and loyalty rewards.
This one’s not going to need our help in the spotlight, but it’s one to watch. An MMOFPS is not something you see every day!
Neon Inferno
NEON INFERNO is a hybrid side-scroller and gallery-shooter where the action takes place in both the foreground and the background. As warring factions battle for control of a dystopian New York City, you enter the fray as an assassin for the Family — a notorious crime syndicate determined to eliminate its rivals and dominate the metropolitan battlefield. Rendered in beautiful pixel art and backed by an evocative soundtrack, Neon Inferno delivers a stylish, modern 2D action experience with cyberpunk flair.
OK, look, this one isn’t a part of Next Fest (and really this list isn’t necessarily strictly participating demos), but Neon Inferno caught my eye while I was scrolling the other day. It boasts gorgeous visuals and offers fast-paced 2D run ‘n gun shooting with on-rails gameplay alongside. This one’s something you gotta keep an eye out for.
Discounty
Manage your own discount supermarket! Get caught up in small-town drama, organize and plan your shop’s layout, and strike lucrative trade deals as you expand your secretive aunt’s business empire. Selling more frozen fries will surely heal this broken community…right?
Couldn’t have a more apt description of a game than that. Capatilism, ho!
Sea Walker Saga
An exciting steampunk adventure with strategy and RPG elements. Fight pirates, explore the seabed, build your own battle island and set out into the vast world ocean in search of a mythical continent!
Build your own island and take it to battle against baddies from all over!
Wild West General Store Simulator
The Wild West during the prime of the Gold Rush. The year is 1850. It was an offer you couldn’t refuse: Take over a prosperous General Store on the main street of a thriving growing town. What they forgot to mention: The store is a mere shadow of its former self in the middle of a ghost town. After the Gold was gone, so were most of the people. But you want to live the American Dream. And no one can stop you.
Run a General Store in the Wild West. Customize and expand your shop. Make sure that your customers’ constantly changing needs are satisfied. Work every job yourself or let your employees stack the shelves and work the till. Find out what it feels like to own a Wild West Supermarket.
It speaks for itself, cowboy. Git ‘er done.
DAVY x JONES
Ascend to the highest fathom of a pirate underworld with the infamous Davy Jones on this action-packed, revenge-driven journey. Control the captain’s headless body, stay on pace with his autonomous skull and keep his legend alive.
Backstabbed, betrayed, the works—play as the Davy Jones as you enact your revenge against the dastardly Blackbeard in this intense, fast-paced first-person shooter.
Hirogami
Explore a beautiful origami world as Hiro, a fan-wielding master of the art of ‘folding’. Embark on a mystical journey to save your fragile home from deadly digital invaders. Take on animal forms to traverse the landscape, solve puzzles, overcome enemies, and save the realm.
Interesting to see Bandai Namco Studios band with a different publisher, but that doesn’t stop Hirogami from looking like a contender for excellent adventuring this year.
The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest
After a visit to the psychologist that went horribly wrong, you’re trapped in the mind of a game developer on the brink of physical and emotional burnout during the last stages of an intense project. Experience a metroidvania drenched in anxiety based on a very true story.
Help Fletcher Howie Jr. escape his mental prison and save the day!
Xenopurge
Xenopurge is a tactical auto-battler where you are a Commander tasked with purging the Xenos threat. Operate from a remote command center, issuing indirect orders via multi-screen interfaces. Plan routes, set priorities, and adapt as missions escalate and feel the true weight of being in command.
Xenopurge offers tactical gameplay through a unique presentation style that pits you at the desk of many monitors and not just the screens themselves—what you get is an oddly cosy experience if not a bit unnerving as you combat the Xenos threat.
